ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
July 28, 2005 Thursday 11:25 AM Eastern Time

Well-known Rssn businessman decorated with Legion of Honor order

PARIS

President Jacques Chirac of France has signed a decree on decorating
the well-known Russian businessman Ara Abramian, who chairs the Union
of Russian Armenians and is a UNESCO good will ambassador, with the
Order of the Legion of Honor, the highest state award in this
country.

“Ara Abramian did very much for the promotion of Russian-French
relations,” Russia’s ambassador to France, Alexander Avdeyev said.
“He is a co-chairman of the Russian-French Dialogue public
association that was set up at the initiative of Presidents Vladimir
Putin and Jacques Chirac.”

“Mr. Abramian helped to install a monument to the Soviet soldier at
Pere La Chaise cemetery in Paris to commemorate the 60th anniversary
since the end of World War II,” Avdeyev said.

“He also organized fruitful bilateral business meetings and the
festival of Russian movies in Honfleur in Normandy,” he said.

“Mr. Abramian’s activity in the area of Russian-French relations
combines warm feelings with concrete moves, and that’s why I think
the French President’s decision to decorate him with the Order of the
Legion of Honor is totally well-grounded,” Avdeyev said.

“He’s definitely one of the people who mold a new Russian-French
partnership with their own hands,” the ambassador indicated.

The Order of the Legion of Honor, an award having five degrees of
distinction, was instituted by Napoleon in 1802. It is awarded for
outstanding services to France.